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Donna Lowe-Stern didn't know what she would say. Her son was killed the day before. She was looking at a room full of his teammates. She felt it was important for the team to hear from her, because she thought that would be what the message would have been.
Lowe-Stern told them that they should keep playing and stay focused.
Her message was short and to the point, but it would stick with the players and coaches for the rest of the season.
"She was so strong," said running back Micah Bernard, a close friend of Lowe's. It's her child. It motivated us to do right by him, because we saw a woman like that. It was powerful for us to talk about it. It helped the whole team get through it.
Lowe-Stern was calling on her son's teammates to use the sport for something bigger than football.
The team discussed its next steps in a players' meeting. After beating Washington State, everything was on the table, so it was a bye week. Should the players take a break? Should they play football again?
"We all agreed that we need to get back into it," Bernard said. We have to do this for our fallen brother. She helped us decide what to do.
Lowe's death came nine months after his friend and Utah teammate Ty Jordan died of a self-inflicted gunshot. The season could have been lost if there had been another tragedy.
The opposite happened.
"It brought us together in a way that I don't know what could have been more powerful," he said. It gave us all a cause and unified us. It's not that you need that to have a good football team, but that really sparked us and gave everybody a common denominator to play for.
The number both Jordan and Lowe wore was a tribute to the "Be 22% better" slogan.
The team was dedicated to the field with their memories front of mind. Utah, which started the season 2-2, won eight of its final nine games, including a win over Oregon that secured its first Pac-12 championship and a spot in the Rose Bowl. The app is available on the internet.
ClarkPhillips III said that he felt like he owed the season to the players. I wouldn't be able to live with myself if I wasn't giving my all every play.
Lowe switched his number to honor Ty Jordan.
They shared a special bond. Lowe changed his number to honor his friend after Jordan's death. Lowe was voted the first recipient of the Ty Jordan Memorial Scholarship.
Lowe said that Ty made everyone around him better. He made me better. Ty was always pushing me to be my best and that's why my friendship with him means a lot. He wouldn't let me settle for less. I want his legacy to live on through me.
At Jordan's funeral in January, Lowe put his arm around his shoulder and told him that it was going to be all right. We're going to be straight. He wouldn't want us to be sad.
"That's what he told me,"Phillips said. I was like, 'This is your best friend.' This is your dog. This is your little brother.
Lowe was struggling to cope with the loss of his friend.
He had trouble sleeping. He saw a doctor after returning to Utah to deal with the mental and physical toll of Jordan's death.
Lowe's outward positivity remained infectious.
Before he arrived at Utah, Ja'Quinden Jackson didn't know Lowe. His decision to transfer from Texas in December 2020 had a lot to do with his desire to play with Jordan, a friend since the eighth grade. Jackson was persuaded to go to Salt Lake City after a long phone conversation with Jordan.
Jackson found a spirit in Lowe.
Jackson said that they got closer and closer as time went on. He was one of my best friends, my big brother.
They shared a similar background, devotion to football and the loss of Jordan. They tried to keep each other motivated. They would usually say "I love you" and share a hug after they parted ways.
Jackson said that they didn't do that the last time. I tell people I love them. You never know when that person is going to die.
Lowe-Stern received a call from one of his friends in Texas.
A-Lowe got shot.
Lowe-Stern called Utah assistant coach Sharrieff Shah to verify what she had been told. The call woke him up.
Lowe-Stern said that he let her get on it and call him back. I could hear it in his voice when he called me back. I knew that he was dead.
Jeff Rudy, Utah's associate athletic director for football administration, called Whittingham around the same time. Lowe was shot and killed at a house party in Salt Lake City.
It was like reliving the nightmare all over again. It was the same devastating, gut-wrenching feeling and it was a moment that could not happen again. It was like reliving Ty's death, except that now there's another young man that's gone. It was complete devastation.
Word spread quickly around the team. According to court records, multiple Utah football players were at the party where the shooting took place and were interviewed by police.
A probable cause warrant used by the Salt Lake City police department in the arrest of a man described a verbal altercation between him and a group of men outside a house party. Lowe and his girlfriend are said to have been shot at by Buk, who walked down the driveway toward the altercation. The witnesses said that Buk shot the victims five or six times while they were on the ground.
Lowe died at the scene and his girlfriend was rushed to the hospital and survived. Lowe's girlfriend was unable to speak in an interview with police at the hospital later that day, but she told them that Lowe was trying to move his vehicle, but four males would not move out of the way.
The man was arrested and charged with murder, attempted murder, and felony discharge of a firearm.
The number 22 is the first number to be retired by Utah football.
In the first game after Lowe's death, the UTES dominated USC. Utah's 42-26 win over the USC at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum was their first in Los Angeles and ended an eight-game losing streak to the USC.
The team attended Lowe's funeral two days later in his hometown of Mesquite, where he was laid out in his full uniform in an open casket. Behind his body was a large Utah logo, flanked by the No. 22 on both sides.
Shah said during the funeral to not just be better. Be 22% better. If you say you love her 10 times, she will say two more times. Do two more if you do 10 reps.
Several people, including Utah president Taylor Randall and athletic director Mark Harlan, spoke to the crowd at the Family Cathedral of Praise in a service that lasted roughly two hours.
Whittingham told the crowd that they would get through it.
If Utah didn't have a bye the week of Lowe's death, Whittingham isn't sure his team would have been ready to play. The team emerged with a renewed sense of focus after several days of shock wore off.
When Ty passed, I felt like the team was even closer, and I felt it even more so when Aaron passed. It was a pulling effect for everyone. You know what? We are all we have. We took that mentality into every game. No one was going to defeat us.
Throughout the rest of the season, Lowe and Jordan's memories were honored. No. 22 was the first program to be retired. lockers were preserved The Rice-Eccles Stadium had red paint on the 22-yards. The locker room had a slogan written on it.
"We were playing for something bigger than ourselves," he said. We owed it to the two men that wore 22. We had to do it in their names because they wouldn't want us to do it for them.
"Be 22% Better" was Utah's new slogan after the death of Lowe.
After her son's death, Lowe-Stern watched every game from her home in Texas.
She said that watching the Utes has provided her with a connection to her son, even if there have been times when she just sat and cried.
She said she wanted to see her baby. I have some moments, but it helps. It's hard to lose a child, and I've never experienced it. It's difficult. I walk around with a sick feeling that I will never leave.
The team took a leap as it rallied around the memories of Lowe and Jordan. Utah took control of the Pac-12 South with a convincing 35-21 win against Arizona State on October 16th and then lost to Oregon State the next week.
A tribute video that had been played in Rice-Eccles Stadium during the season was played at the Pac-12 championship game in Las Vegas. On the field,Phillips needed a moment to collect himself after he started to tear up. He was about to turn his dream into a reality, but he was reminded that Lowe wasn't there to share it with him.
The confetti flew in the air after the game andPhillips felt a wave of emotion. A wave of emotion washed over him after he shared a long embrace with Shah, his and Lowe's position coach.
"I could feel it, and it was very painful," he said. We knew that we did it, so it was a bit sad. For 22 we accomplished it. They weren't here, but we knew they were here.
With Lowe-Stern in attendance for the Rose Bowl, it has another chance to create a lasting tribute to Jordan and Lowe.
We were motivated to push through everything we've been through. Jackson said that they leaned on each other as family and brothers.
We got through it and are going to the Rose Bowl.
